Welcome on your greatest journey to the Galactic Core. On behalf of Transcendence Community staff and users, we would like to welcome you to this great community. Your journey to the galactic core has begun, a great community awaits. Below is some information that will help you navigate the game and the rest of the community. Enjoy!

This post is the combined efforts, of many members of the community including ThePrivateer, Ttech, alterecco, and Azar_Wolf who have contributed much to the development of this thread though many revisions and work.

General Community Rules

Rules and Etiquette

To register to the forums you will be asked a question. It's very easy, trust me ! Running the game once will be enough to answer the question. (also you will get instructions where to look to)

This is not so much a rule as just advice: It’s easy for us to miss notices to activate new accounts. If you want to make sure yours gets activated in a timely fashion, drop by our IRC channel and mention that you’ve made one. Even if nobody is active at the time, say something! Somebody will probably notice the message and either activate the account or notify the staff to do so.

If you want to introduce yourself, please use the Introductions thread. If you prefer to introduce your self, or expedite your activation process, you can get on the [url=http://web%20chat.freenode.net/?nick=Transporter...&channels=transcendence&uio=MT1mYWxzZSYyPXRydWUmMz1mYWxzZSY5PXRydWUmMTA9dHJ1ZSYxMT0yNDYb3]Transcendence Chat[/url].

Respect the other users and the moderators and staff. Transcendence is a fun game, and we try to keep the community friendly and helpful. If you have any issues, use the report buttons or contact one of the staff in a PM.

Choose a sensible and readable subject line for your post. This will increase the chance of getting your post read.

Blatant advertisement is not permitted. If you post advertisements among your initial posts you will be put on probation. If you continue, you will be banned. Posting links to other games or sites is OK, as long as it is done in a proper context. Use your good judgment and don't make us treat you like a spam bot.

No Trolling, posting of empty or meaningless threads to increase post count or bump posting allowed.

Avoid resurfacing old posts (Necromancy). It is generally confusing and it is better to start a new thread and reference the old one if necessary. There are of course exceptions, so exercise your good judgment. If you feel you must necro-post, then please make it clear in your post so that people can be aware of it. (Greater then 6 months make a new thread)

Posting illegal material, links to illegal material or links to discussions about illegal materials is strictly prohibited and will be swiftly removed. In cases where it is obvious that the posted knew of the illegality of the material, it is a banning offense and will be met as such.

If you see a post that is in violation of the rules, don't try to take the matter into your own hands; there is a "Report Post" button in the lower right of every post marked with an exclamation point. Use that to contact the staff who will then take care of the problem.

Bugs, Ideas, and Contributing

Transcendence is still in development and there are many ways for people to contribute to the game, including reporting bugs that you may find, feature suggestions for future releases, adding and maintaining information on the wiki, and contributing on the Chat, etc

If you think you've found a bug in the game, please report it here (in the appropriate forum for your version). If the game has crashed, please include the relevant snippet from the Debug.log file, which is found in the game folder. You can also look at the bug tracker to see if the bug has already been reported.

If you've got a suggestion for how to make the game better, please post it in the Ideas & Suggestions forum.

F.A.Q

I want to post something, Where do I post it?

Announcements - This is where Administrators and George post stuff, but you can feel free to reply to anything in here.

Commonwealth - This is where we discuss Transcendence in detail - stuff like the storyline, factions, races, end-game tips etc.Beginner's Luck - Like it says. New players post here if you are having trouble. This is a friendly board, because we were all once newbs!Bug Reports - Post in the subforum that belongs to your version of Transcendence if you have found a bug that you don't feel is related to a mod you have installed.Ideas and Suggestions - Think Transcendence could be better? Post here with an idea and it may just end up getting made into the game!Tech Support - Having trouble with the game? Is it too slow, too fast, or just plain old doesn't work? Post here for help!

Shipyards - Here we discuss mods - troubles with mods mainly nowadays, or just comments on mods, or modding in general.Mod Announcements - Finished making a mod? Here's the place to put it, or just praise the finished product of another modderDrawing Board - Got ideas for a future mod? Post here and we'll all discuss the idea!Official Extensions - Here goes posts about the Official Transcendence Extension projectModding Reference - Tutorials for modding and scripting!

Community Discussion - Here, we talk about the community in general, such as the IRC and other things. the subforum of Forum Tech support discusses bugs in the forum itselfFan Fiction - Want to make your own lore about Transcendence? We'd love to hear it!Off-Topic - Want to discuss something unrelated? Here's the place!

What Version of Transcendence should I play?
Currently, the latest stable version (version released to the public) is 1.01 and can be downloaded here. The latest Beta release can usually be found in theAnnouncements Board. Currently, the latest Beta is 1.08

Hold on. Which ship do I choose?
Hopeful Thread: here. But for quick reference, try the Sapphire the first time you play, as it is a balanced ship - once you get the gist of Transcendence, move to the Wolfen, and once you want more out of the game, go to the Freighter. Or choose one randomly and have fun!

Mods and Extensions

How do I get a mod running?
It's easy! The first time you run Transcendence, a folder should be created alongside the Executable, called "Extensions". Download a mod from Xelerus., and (usually), all you need to do is un-compress it and place it inside the Extensions folder. That's it! The author usually has more details on Xelerus, or with a Readme that comes with the mod.

I'm having troubles with a mod.
Ok. You should probably post your problem in the Shipyards. Please tell us the name of the mod, and what version of Transcendence you are running, plus any other noticeable details and we'll help you out.

I having trouble, I've got no idea about XYZ
If you are having real trouble, with the game, the forums, anything and have no idea what to do, or where to post, just post somewhere (anywhere, but Community will be best) and the thread will get moved to the correct location when all your questions have been answered. If you want a more immidiate answer, you can try the Transcendence Chat, where most of the administrators and moderators, and many users hang out.

What are all these funny links, like "bit.ly" and "tiny.cc"?
short links, or Link Compression shortens really long hyperlinks. This is best used in Signatures, or on the IRC - it is good netiquette, to detail where the link is going to when you post - so no one gets a surprise. You'll need to visit a site like http://tiny.cc to make a short link.

Gee you guys use acronyms a lot. What does it all stand for?
Whilst internet slang varies, here are common acronyms:
If you get on IRC you can do ~wtf is <acronym> to get its meaninh

Community Staff - People who help out on the WIki, IRC (Chat), and other resources often.

Wiki Documentarist - People who maintain and keep the wiki working and up to date. These are the people to ask if you have a wiki issue.

Where do I post something?
Before you post something, just read the description and follow the Announced topics for that forum

The Transcendence Chat

The Transcendence Chat is a fun friendly discussion place for people in the Transcendence community to have real-time discussions in. Many of the active members on the forums are also on the Chat regularly.

What is the Transcendence Chat
Quite simply, it is an IRC Channel on FreeNode IRC Network, which maintains services for users to use.

But wait! There's more. Part the great thing in this community is the amount of resources provided:Community Resources:

* Xelerus - this site has been around for quite a while, it is most notably known for free mod hosting, it also has a great resource to locate functions and access the Transcendence Chat.
* Ttranscendence - Arguably the longest url of a fan managed page, it provides access to the Transcendence Chat information; including full-yearly logs, stats, and a spakin' new UNID database!
* Transcendence Official Wiki - In cool blues and greens, this site provides access to hundreds of pages of information relating to Transcendence in every form. From modding to in-game ships and features this site has it all. If you have a free moment, register and start editing!
* Transcendence Trac - The Official Bug Report Tracking System, if you have a bug this is where to report it. Or see them even.
* Transcendence Chat - The active Transcendence Chat is lively and interesting, it is active with discussion relating to the Transcendence Universe as well as the science of ours! Come by today!
* Unofficial Transcendence Forums - The original Transcendence forums, they are now archived for your viewing convenience.
* Old Depredicated Links - This is the location of the v6 Transcendence Site which contains links to former community run pages.
* Dvlenk6's Image Resources - This long time site provides access to many image resources that can expand the objects found in transcendence.
* TSB - Wolfys Transcendence Mod Forum with 10MB mod hosting.
* Concept Ships - This is not actually a resource made by a Transcendence Player however it is great for inspiration.
* (IRC) Member Map - This is a map of the locations of a number of our community members. Place your location on the map!

For Archival Purposes Only:

* Thorm's Transcenence Mods (DO NOT USE) - This has mods dating back to the very early versions of Transcendence, if you have access to an early version of Transcendence you might be able to still play them. But they are totally unsupported. [Uses The Internet Archive]

Overall this community is lively in many places and located throughout the web. Please join and look around these site! The administrators of these spend their free time and hours working on these sites making sure they are usable and full of great content!

Problem with policy/staff/etc? Read here please!
If you have a problem*, please tell me about it! (Especially if you think I'm being a unilateral-decision-making or elitist jerk or something. I'd really want to know if I'm causing friction in the community doing something like that.)
That's what I'm (or well, any of the staff really) here for.

*(Pertinent to the community. If its a bug or tech support issue, use the relevant forums. If its a personal/health/miscellaneous issue, then you might want to see someone more suited to helping you with that )

I'm not making this post in response to anything in particular in the community that I've noticed (in fact, I'd say we're doing better than ever! At the time of this posting, we've had over 100 unique registered users active over the last month! That's ~5x more than when I first became an admin, and over 10x more than the all-time low I observed) - I'm just posting this after a rather retrospective conversation I had with staff of a few other unrelated communities, and I think this is something that everyone should know about.

Probably the worst thing to do is to hold in your complaint, because then it will never come to our attention, and thus it won't get rectified.
However, on that note, its also not a good idea to make a huge rant-post about what you think is going wrong. That has invariably caused rifts in communities, as people choose sides over the issue at hand, and tend to operate much more on emotion. But then again, once things get to that stage, its usually indicative of a problem that has been festering for far, far too long.

So what you should do is just send a PM (generally for more personal-level issues, such as if you feel that a staff member has been treating you unfairly, or you think I'm coming off as a jerk, or something to that effect) or post a thread in the community discussions (when its generally something such as you feel that a rule is flawed, or some policy needs to be re-evaluated for such and such reason). The IRC ( http://tinyurl.com/43cp8hc ), is also a great place to talk to us, and most of the staff are present there too.

Remember to try to keep it civil; stirring up emotions, dividing lines, and making accusations is just going to cause fights to break out, and that is the last thing that any of us want. I mean, if you didn't care about the fate of the community, you wouldn't be bringing it to our attention in the first place.

Also, please note that it is imperative that we be able to understand your sentences. I know this is sort of a trivial thing to say, but I've had incidents in the past where I couldn't understand what someone was trying to say because the meaning of their post was too obfuscated in metaphor, flowery language, and bad grammar.

If something is still not going right, please contact me via PM. I took this position because I cared about fostering the growth of the community - I will treat any issues brought to me with the attention they deserve.

TL;DR:
Don't like how things are being run? Talk to me about it so that we can work on resolving your problem!

Bug Reports
Welcome to the Bug Reports forums, these forums are to allow you to easily report, discuss, and check if bugs you discover not duplicated and valid. There are a few things to consider before posting here, first off, any bug reports that are real are posted on the Bug Trac. This great piece of software is used to report bugs and allow them to be assigned to different versions and grouped by type, so on and so forth. We really recommend you post there however. Where ever you post, keep the rules below in mind.

General Bug Reporting Guidelines

Always check for duplicate posts, both on the BugTrac and on the forums (many times the bug has been found in a previous version and has not yet been fixed.)

When posting a bug report, let us know what version of Transcendence your using

Let us know what mods or extensions your using (if any)

You might need to report your system information (CPU, Graphics Card, etc) This can often be obtained by using dxdiag (Start -> Run -> dxdiag)

If you feel the bug is real, often a good practice, if possible, is to attempt to reproduce the issue on another system.

Posting a bug report

Posting on BugTracBefore you post on Bug Trac please be aware of the following:

You must be register to use Trac, once registered you will need to be activated. This can be done by getting on the Transcendence Chat, posting on the Forums, or by email.

Posting on the Forums

Always post in the forum that relates to your Transcendence version. If your version is not listed, the bug might be fixed

All old bug reports go in the Archive, much the same was as bugs go in milestones in Trac, check there before you post.

First post no advertising rule
Because even though I'm pretty sure we're all not spambots (or paid spammers for that matter) here, I'm still not 100% certain, so that is the sole reason behind this rule. Actually, I have always had this policy (just unofficially), and only ever had to use it once. I thought it would be best to make it a bit more publically known. Thats all.

If you make a spam/advertising* post as your first post, you will be put on probation. If you make another advertisement in the next 99 posts, you will be banned. If you spam to reach 100 posts, you will also be banned. If you evade that ban, we will ban you again. Basically, if you are a spambot that slips through the cracks or are a paid spammer, we will find you, and ban you. All mentions of banning in this post refer to permabans. That is all.

*What I mean by spam/advertising is like, trying to advertise a product or service or something. Doing something legitimate, like advertising a mod you made for transcendence is totally ok. If you have any questions you can ask us. Also, you can ask permission from any of the admin on the board if its ok to post something that you think might be in contravention of this rule.

New Signature Policy
With so many parts of the community having banners in the forums now signatures have begun to grow quite substantially. To help prevent issues with massive signatures and banners causing issues on the forums.

To help solve this there are some new guidelines on forum signature policy:

Signatures will have a size constraint of 500x200

Single images should be no larger then 440x60 if possible

MoTM and MoTY banners will use the standard "user bar" design - 350x20

Text going beyond these contrains horizontally is fine! Don't worry.

User Bars are preferred because they let you show off contributions to projects and activities within the community or beyond since they are so small. Feel free to suggest ideas however!

Current MoTM and MoTY images will be converted to user bars in the next few weeks so keep your eyes peeled. For people who have more then a few wins, there will be a image converter to make the images a rotating animated image for use.

An example of the new signature size:
(No user was picked to determine this size, it was just what seemed to be a best bet based off of people who win multiple MoTMs)

New necromancy policy
After heaving read through a number of the necro'ed threads and discussed this on IRC, I have come to the conclusion that it only serves to generate both confusion and a large number of off-topic posts by other users that contribute nothing postitive in general to the discussion, and thus I am hereby barring the resurrection of threads whose last post dates to a time over one year prior to present time.

There are a number of exceptions however.Stickies and announcements may be posted in, regardless of the date of the last post.Commonwealth, Beginner's luck, Community discussions, and Off Topic are all subject to the necromancy ban.Bugs and Brainstorms allows resurrection of threads past the 1-year mark, but only in instances where the thread in question is of relevance to the current version of transcendence at the date of resurrection.The Shipyards allows for the resurrection of one's own mods and projects, though if you wish to inquire if a project is still alive if it is past the cutoff point, please PM the author instead.Script & modding example forums are entirely exempt from the necromancy policy.